Though Feb. 3 is often called “the day the music died,” courtesy of Don McLean's “American Pie,” Holly's music has never died. As influential, vital and rocking as they were when Holly, the Crickets and producer Norman Petty recorded them, the hits remain rock 'n' roll blueprints.

“Buddy — The Buddy Holly Story” is proving to be as enduring as the songs, the people and the story on which they're based. The jukebox musical, written by Alan Janes, opened in 1989 in London and continues to draw fans around the world. It opens at the Cameo Theatre this weekend.

Born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock on Sept. 7, 1936, Holly and a group of friends recorded several songs, including “That'll Be The Day,” at Petty's studio in Clovis, N.M., in February 1957.

Six months later, “That'll Be The Day” topped the Billboard charts. In the ensuing year, Holly, or Holly and the Crickets, hit the Top 40 with six more seminal rock 'n' roll songs including “Peggy Sue,” “Oh, Boy!,” “Maybe Baby” and “Rave On.”

When “Buddy” director Jonathan Pennington takes the helm of the show, he'll do so with a certain sense of responsibility.

“I graduated from Texas Tech, in Lubbock, in '97. My mother was born and raised in Lubbock. My uncle went to high school with Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly was what I listened to in my car,” Pennington said. “The challenge of this play is these are real people. This is a show I wanted to do for a long time.”

The Holly/Crickets band is augmented by music director Natalia Skovorodina, guitarists Ben Ozuna and David Koch and saxophonist Billy Ray Sheppard in some scenes. The play features 22 live songs, 20 from the Buddy Holly book, the Big Bopper's “Chantilly Lace” and Valens' “La Bamba.”

“It's important to me these are actually musicians playing the music,” Pennington said. “And it was important to find musicians who actually listen to each other to keep the music true.”

“We're all in bands,” Mann said. “It's one thing to play the songs. It's another thing to combine the acting. For us, it's important that we not half-ass around the music.”

“It's fun channeling the music with bandmates,” Garrett Mann said. “We look at this as more than a play.”

“We could just be another cover band, but we want to get it right,” drummer Vasquez said.

Stewart Mann and Tony Gloria have acting experience at places such as Disney World and Fiesta Texas.

“In the acting I've done, I've never played a real person,” Mann said. “Taken as a rule, you have to play it as accurately as possible or you're not doing the person justice. If at all possible, you do things like Buddy Holly did.”

“We know we're not going to get everything exactly right, but we have to do our best,” Gloria said. “And then you think about bands like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, their idol was Buddy Holly.”

Since the Mann brothers landed the “Buddy” roles, a Holly song has been added to the Statesboro Revue set list.

“I have a lot of influences, but I never considered Buddy Holly an influence. I got the part and now I'm upset with myself that I didn't know more Buddy Holly songs,” Mann said. “And I now know he was a really good guitar player.”